If I sense of humor kept one warm, you'd be forever toasty!

> Wood has been my sole source of heat for the last 12 years. I know that
> green wood doesn't burn.

My use of "you" was the generic you of all readers. "One" is so pretentious: One should have a mix of aged wood for one's fire, shouldn't one.

> After all, in this kind of situation, I will not be the only one with the problem.

And one mustn't assume that all those others have a clue about green wood.


:->

C'est la vie.

I suspect there are people praying the two of us never meet IRL.

-Blast

My dad and a neighbor used mainly wood to heat their homes. The neighbor had the best system, a woodstove in his basement, allowed the heat to come up into the main floor thru vents.

Dad had a woodstove in the living room that would kick you out of the house if you fed it too much.

The wood mainly came from local construction sites - free for the hauling off; golf courses that were expanding - not only free, because they all knew Dad, most would deliver; and friends who would donate downed trees.

The two of them rigged a high speed wood splitter -"the other one took too long", they had 2 bucks for cutting wood to length and about 3 chain saws, all of indeterminate age/origin. I don't remember a time when there wasn't at least 10 cords of wood out back, cut and ready, and probably 4 or 5 more drying.

Kept them busy and out of trouble.

True, but wood can be seasoned in 8 to 10 foot lengths and then bucked and split to fireplace cords as needed. Makes theft more difficult.

[/quote] A bow saw would be my choice every time. A couple of these saws and a good stock of replacement blades will get you through a big pile of wood. [/quote]

+1 on that. I would also agree that a person should stock up on blades, as you can always make a traditional frame from electrical tubing or scrap wood and wire.

If you dont know, there are two types of bow saw blades. One pattern for green wood, and another for seasoned wood. You won't find them differentiated at the local orange or blue store, but you can order online from a Bahco dealer, the successor to the fabulous Sandvik Swedish bowsaws.

Ah! I've been wondering why I don't see the Sandvik branded blades any more.

I've done that with softwood and soft-ish hardwoods like poplar, but they seem to go punky before they dry out. SOP up here is to split them while they're green, otherwise you lose most of the heat value.

Willow seems to fare better. Our local 'Manitoba Maple' too. And I don't know about really "hard" hardwoods. I took out some old ash trees two years ago and the small stuff (lingering in a big brush pile) is utterly dry and solid; I haven't cut the big stuff yet.

Any thoughts from southern neighbours?